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Culture Shock: As Seen in Sales & Marketing Management Magazine

Forget about passing on new sales skills—the hardest part of a merger may be getting your staffers to adapt to a new corporate culture. Here's how to help ease the transition with training.

Kevin Wilde remembers the first time he transgressed against a new corporate culture. Several years ago, Wilde left General Electric Company, where he had helped guide employees through a number of company acquisitions, to become the chief learning officer at Minneapolis-based General Mills Inc. About a week into his new job, he addressed his fellow General Mills managers in a meeting, pouring out his thoughts on several issues. Behavior like that was routine at GE. But it wasn't at the Midwestern food giant, and the reaction he got was markedly different.